Wild Warmup: Minnesota vs. Colorado

The essentials

The Wild Warmup is presented by Bryant Heating and Cooling
ST. PAUL -- After two road games to begin the exhibition schedule, the Wild will play on home ice Monday night when it hosts the Colorado Avalanche at Xcel Energy Center.
The game comes 11 days ahead of the regular season opener and is the first of three home games over the next four days.
The game Monday will also mark the preseason debut of a number of the Wild's best players, including forward Kirill Kaprizov as well as defensemen Jared Spurgeon, Alex Goligoski, Matt Dumba and Jonas Brodin.
With the exception of goaltender Cam Talbot, who will not dress, the Wild could be icing its Opening Night lineup.
Over the course of camp, Kaprizov has been skating next to Joel Eriksson Ek and Mats Zuccarello. Marcus Foligno, Jordan Greenway and Ryan Hartman have made up another line. Kevin Fiala has been with Victor Rask and Freddy Gaudreau. Nico Sturm and Nick Bjugstad have also formed 2/3 of the team's fourth line.
All 11 of those forwards are scheduled to play on Monday night.
The only change up front comes on the fourth line, where Brandon Duhaime has spent much of camp on the left wing. He's not scheduled to play on Monday, where Matt Boldy is expected to scratch in.
On the backend, Spurgeon and Goligoski as well as Dumba and Brodin have been constants. Dmitry Kulikov, Jordie Benn and Jon Merrill have rotated on the third pairing, with Kulikov and Benn scheduled to play against the Avs.

Goaltender Kaapo Kahkonen will draw the start between the posts and is expected to play the entire game. He'll be backed up by Andrew Hammond.
"Hopefully we have tough decisions," Wild coach Dean Evason said about the number of spots still up in the air. "We've only seen the two games, so we're going to have a nice situation to see these guys play. And you'll see some positions that we want to see guys in, and try to give them the best opportunity to show. Hopefully it separates itself.
"Hopefully we have tough decisions, but usually it separates itself."
Among the decisions still left to be made ahead of Opening Night, are the wing spot on the fourth line, a potential 13th forward and how the third defensive pairing could shake out.
In that regard, this week of camp - with four scheduled preseason games - could play a giant part in who begins the season in the NHL and who begins it where.

"We've still got a real healthy competition going on right now, so it's exciting for us," Evason said.
While the Wild will play back-to-back games on Wednesday and Thursday this week, Colorado will embark on consecutive contests Monday and Tuesday, heading back to Denver after the game in St. Paul to play the Vegas Golden Knights at Ball Arena.
They practiced in two separate groups on Sunday in Colorado, with their game group for Monday likely to include J.T. Compher and Alex Newhook up front, Bowen Byram and Kurtis MacDermid on the backend, and starting goaltender Darcy Kuemper between the posts.